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Partnerships with the Local Government
One of our favorite things about the Ranch is the opportunities God gives us to develop partnerships! We believe we are better when we work together. One of the partnerships that continues to grow is our work with the local government social work offices. We have run many programs with them through the years in one of the neighborhoods where we focus our work, Marquez de Leon; but in the past year, we have also grown our relationships with the city social workers and expanded our work with them, leading to many different ministries. Mayolo was asked to lead a break dancing course in 3 different government community centers. He spent 6 months faithfully teaching a group of children modern dance, and he ended the classes with a competition that was a joint effort between Mayolo, the Ranch, and the city government! Through these classes, May also invited the children, parents, and social workers to the Ranch on several different occasions, asked Pete and I to share the gospel with them and lead some activities, and as a result of these visits and May’s faithful friendship, several social workers have begun to bring their students to our Ranch Kids’ Club ministry on Saturdays!
Another project together with the city social workers is a wheel chair project. Together with Operation Blessing Mexico, we were able to have a week long training seminar for our Ranch staff and city social workers. The participants learned how to identify those people who truly need wheel chairs, take social histories, measure for wheel chairs, assemble the chairs, and fit them to the recipients. Truly, this ministry is a blessing. One of the people who received a chair during the training week is a single mom who cares alone for her disabled son, but who herself was unable to walk. They were entirely dependent on help from neighbors, and help arrived sporadically. With her new wheelchair, this mom can now leave her small one room home and go to the local store for basic food and other supplies. It truly was a life-giving moment for her to receive the wheel chair. As we give these chairs, we are also able to share WHY we are helping the community: in the name of Jesus, we are meeting this particular need, because we know that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that true life is found in Him.
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Ranch News
Kids Club Leadership Development, Looking for New Van
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PRAISE the Lord, and THANK YOU for responding with such generosity. Because of your extra giving when we emailed about the various needs the Ranch has, we now have the funds to purchase a 15 passenger van which will greatly increase our capacity for transporting children, youth, and families to the many ministries we run at the Ranch. We are currently researching the best way to purchase a van and get it to La Paz, as it is difficult to find reliable vans here! Pray for wisdom for us!
Below, you will also see some pictures from various ministries we are currently running on the Ranch: Saturday Kids’ Club, a baseball afternoon on Thursdays, and horse lessons with several youth who want to increase their skills so that they can be leaders on Saturdays! One of our goals in all of our programs is to help our youth become leaders. We have seen God working in so many ways as various youth grow up in our programs and then take ownership in helping to offer the same experiences to younger children. Sugey (pictured above) is one such youth; she has been coming to Ranch programs for many, many years (more than 6, we estimate!). She is now 12 and is coming faithfully to ride horses during the week so that she can teach horse classes to younger children on Saturdays! It is a joy to watch her growing in her faith and leadership!
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Our girls continue to enjoy life. Ava’s passion for gymnastics has grown, and the other two girls, after watching how much fun their sister was having, decided to join her in the sport. All three girls will be competing this weekend in Cabo, so we are looking forward to being at the gym all day on Friday and part of the day Saturday, encouraging our girls and their teammates. During their activities, Emily has a lot of time to talk to other moms, and she continues to make friends. This past Saturday, one of the moms brought her son to the Ranch Kids’ Club, and another mom has come to ride horses with Emily, with the hope of helping with the horse ministry as well! We certainly are never bored on weekends here, between ministry events and old and new friendships. But hospitality is what the Ranch is all about, and it is a blessing to see God using this place for His glory and kingdom.
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1. Praise God for the money to purchase a much needed van!! Pray for wisdom as we research and purchase the van.
2. Pray that God would work in hearts and lives through the various programs we are running: horses, kids’ club, baseball, and retreats.
3. Pray for our team as we continue to work together in ministry at the Ranch, and for the young people who are desiring to join us for up to a year as they learn about ministry and missions.
4. Pray for our summer programs coming up: we already have more than 10 interns lined up, and we are beginning to think about programming for summer camp already!
5. We have more than 5 young people who want to come beyond our summer internship program. Together with our newest staff (Abby Coster), we are beginning to develop fall and spring internships. One of the hindrances is living space, though, so please continue to pray that God would provide funds for the Missions and Ministry training house!
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